Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

氏: family name, surname

Also: clan

JLPT N14 strokesGrade 4Your ink: 白 Not met
4 strokes
  • Oracle bone · Shang
  • Bronze · Western Zhou
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Two readings, and the words that use each

シshi · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 氏名しめいfull name, identity
  • 氏族しぞくclan, family
  • 田中氏たなかしMr. Tanaka
  • 彼氏かれしboyfriend
  • 摂氏せっしCentigrade, Celsius
  • 華氏かしFahrenheit

うじuji · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 氏うじlineage, family, Mr.
  • 氏神うじがみShinto god, patron god
  • 氏素性うじすじょう(a person's) family background

Also read -うじ, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Pictogram (象形)

Source: Wiktionary, 氏 (rev. 93486411), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“The base kanji for a surname or a courtesy title, representing the foundation of a person's social and historical identity.”
From the 氏 family story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered

氏 gives its sound to

The family reading is シ (shi). Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read シ

63 kanji share this on'yomiAll 63
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · shì

Same form: 氏 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).

Simplified
氏 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
氏 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin shì most common reading

Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.

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